Yes, Janet. I noticed the catch in his voice too. Dr Westman really is motivated by a desire to help people. I did hear Carolyn's story. I"m glad to get a little more insight from you about her. It makes the story even more compelling. The largest hospital around here, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, is probably not as large as Duke but forbidding enough with many long corridors and I am sure that many people need assistance getting from the parking garage to their appointment. I know I've mentioned before that I have a neighbor, obese, legs wrapped in ace bandages, hardly able to make it from her door to her car. It makes me sad every time I see her. If only more people knew that things could be different for them.

I've seen Dr Westman in his Durham practice a number of times, mostly during my actual weight loss phase. He was very interested in the IF approach I was trying, which at the time was still pretty new-ish. I'd already lost a lot of weight and he asked me to come speak with his group, but I'm a serious introvert.

Anyway, I won't pretend to know him beyond a doctor/patient relationship, but he seemed like a genuinely good guy who was just trying to figure out the puzzle, like the rest of us.

"he seemed like a genuinely good guy who was just trying to figure out the puzzle, like the rest of us."
Yeah, exactly. I wish he had more funding.

"If only more people knew that things could be different for them."
That's true. As much as I don't care what other people do and have no need to share unless asked, I do wish I could say, "I went through something similar. There is reason to hope...."

I think one of the important things he mentioned, for those of us who have been doing this for a while and are pretty comfortable with it, is to stop monitoring so much, try to relax more about things and get on with other things that make life meaningful and enjoyable. He isn't suggesting we stop eating a low carb diet, only that we use it as a means to an end, a better life, or at least that's my take on what he said. Of course he said a lot more than that. I just tended to narrow in on this bit because it had the most relevance to me. I realize that some people really enjoy all the monitoring. I'm not one of them so I find it refreshing to have him seemingly endorse what I have been doing for a while now.

I agree Jean, I'm at the stage where I'm monitoring very little if at all. There was a period of time when I monitored to establish a known baseline of where I could be with BG and BKs based on how I was eating. Once you've been eating consistently for a while, you can pretty much tell where you are and no longer have a need for measurements. If I should change anything in the future, I'll start the monitoring again, but I'm fairly happy with the WOE I've developed so far. I know how to maintain, and I know how to go into weight losing mode if I want. Simple is the key at this point.

Great point. And as I have tried to convey on this thread before, even if you are new to LC, he keeps the diet very simple...no "macros", no MFP.

Quote:

So, I think there are some people who misunderstand,
they calculate the macros and they want a percentage to follow.
I don't think we know exactly the right percentage.
And in my clinic I don't really have people calculating those,
they are just eating the real foods
and then often their body fat is filling in the percent fat from the--
If you're getting 70%, 10 or 20% of that is coming from your body fat when you're losing weight, so most people don't calculate that under their macro.

I was watching his advanced tips interview yesterday and I was struck toward the end about how he talked about needing to treat the whole person, and that other things going on in a person's life also needed to be addressed -- this is so unlike any doctor I've ever been to. Very refreshing.

Yes, there are so many other avenues he takes to Heal the whole person in a clinic setting. However, if you can't get to a clinic yet (they are planning more around the country) ....

I just learned that if you request the HealClinics information package, a 38 page brochure and recipe excerpts are emailed to you immediately and that includes the complete and exact clinic diet program. For a copy of the Duke Clinic program with the quantity limitations on the extra foods that have been used almost 20 years with great success to manage diabetes and obesity...fill in the email request for the Free Heal Clinics Welcome Kit at bottom of this page: http://healclinics.com

Or as DietDoctor wrote, the Ketogenic diet goes Mainstream. It has been a "sea change" about Keto this year, one example a LC friend home saw Tim Tebow on Dr Oz talking about a Ketogenic diet, here's one segment and there are more: https://youtu.be/le5LHXjmgRA

You only have to ask yourself one question, Is it on "page four"
Actually with the new Heal brochure page 12-14, but he is always referring to the list of permitted foods. If this were an actual clinical trial, the answer would be no.

But it isn't, so the next question is, Will TOTAL carbs for the day be under 20g. That is hard to do with a MIM. I would add them occasionally when bored with eggs, and I always ate more vegetables, but that was "my plan" more like NANY.

So for anything you want to add that is not on "page four", ask Does it cause cravings? Did you continue to lose weight/have low BG/feel good? If all was well at the next appointment, then YOU could add those foods in the amount you did.
If your goal is weight loss and you returned in a month without any, he would suggest removing those foods.

I use shirataki noodles all the time and they cause me no problems. If you decide to use them make sure you get the ones that are 100% glucomannan not the tofu ones. It is the glucomannan noodles that are all fiber. They are not part of Dr Westman's diet and the amount of fiber in them will effect your total carb count but not your net carb count. So, if you are following Dr Westman's diet strictly (which is the only way to follow it) then as Janet says, the answer is "no".

As a devotee of the MIM, I would have a tough time eliminating my morning muffin. However, if Dr. Westman's diet advises TOTAL CARB count, then the MIM would be out. Here's a paragraph from a flaxseed website:

Quote:

Two cups contain about 62 grams of protein and 97 grams of carbs. Because fiber is a nondigestible form of carbohydrate, it is not counted in the carb content. This means 2 cups of flaxseed meal has only 5 grams of carbs. These are often referred to as usable or net carbs.

My MIM recipe includes 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, a substantial slug of fiber. OK for "netters" but not for everyone.